Honored to share with you: 4 new partners at Igalia

Posted on Tuesday November 30th, 2010 by tanty

Lately I’ve not been blogging that often. My daily work has lead me to be more involved in the coordination of development teams rather than in the development itself. Therefore, it becomes more difficult to talk about this or that GNOME related technology.

Even, early this week, I’ve been attending a Scrum Mastering course. Not that I’m a crazy fan of Scrum. As other Agile methodologies, it has pros and cons so, better you get what it works for you and forget about the rest. But that would be the subject for another post …

This post is about an event that happened at Igalia some days ago which maybe you already are aware of.

Four Igalians have joint the group of shareholders of the company and this is not something that happens every day.

Being already an owner myself, I’m really happy and honored of these 4 fellows having accepted the offer to get a part of my company:

Alejandro Piñeiro

API

Accessibility

Xabier Rodríguez Calvar

Calvaris

Personally, I think it is something logical to extend the sharing philosophy of the Free Software to the management and decisions taking processes of the company. Our greatest good is our staff and what they have been working for is exactly the same values for what the founders created Igalia 9 years ago, having into account our self imposed professional, internal and social responsibilities.

All, in all, I’m very happy today 🙂

Congrats, guys, I’m really honored of sharing with you!!!

Grub2 splash theme for Igalia

Posted on Sunday September 27th, 2009 by tanty

Igalia Grub2 splash

Following with the idea of creating a full theme for Igalia covering the whole artwork that is shown in a Gnome desktop. I’ve created a Debian package and a sample picture to place in the Grub2 splash, at the computer startup. I’ve uploaded it to a public Git repository which you can download with the following command:

$ git clone http://git.igalia.com/art/grub2-igalia-splashimages.git

You can create and install the Debian package with:

$ cd grub2-igalia-splashimages
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
...
$ dpkg -i ../grub2-igalia-splashimages*deb

In order to use any of the images in the package to show as Grub2 splash, you just have change a line like:

$ cat /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme 
...
  for i in {/boot/grub,/usr/share/images/desktop-base}/moreblue-orbit-grub.{png,tga} ; do
...
  set color_normal=black/black
  set color_highlight=magenta/black
...

$ cat /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme 
...
  for i in {/boot/grub,/usr/share/images/desktop-base,/usr/share/images/grub}/igalia_black.{png,tga} ; do
/some_file.tga
... 
  set color_normal=light-gray/black
  set color_highlight=white/black
...

and run:

$  update-grub2

Grub splash theme for Igalia

Posted on Friday August 7th, 2009 by tanty

Igalia Grub splash

Lately, some people at Igalia have been thinking about creating a full theme for the company covering the whole artwork that is shown in a Gnome desktop. With this in mind, I’ve been playing for a while in order to create some sample pictures to place in the Grub splash, at the computer startup. I’ve create my first serie of 3 images and I’ve uploaded them, and the material needed to create them, in a public Git repository which you can download with the following command:

$ git clone http://git.igalia.com/art/grub-theme-igalia.git

I’ve not created a Debian package to comfortable install them yet but, in the meanwhile, I suggest to make use of the “mini” version, which thumbnail you can see at the top of this post. Just compress the file with gzip (not really needed) and place it in the your favorite directory for Grub splash images. For example:

$ gzip -c igalia-grub-splash-mini.xpm > /boot/grub/igalia-grub-splash-mini.xpm.gz

Then, you just have to select such splash image in the “menu.lst” grub file. Also, I recommend to modify the preferred background and foreground colors for the booting menu:

$ cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
...
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/igalia-grub-splash-mini.xpm.gz

foreground=8cb6d2
background=14418b

Ubuntu Usplash theme for Igalia revamped (a.k.a. Jaunty’s edition)

Posted on Saturday July 11th, 2009 by tanty

Jaunty Usplash 300x225

Following my post about the creation of an Usplash theme for Igalia, I’ve just revamped the package and artwork to the latest stable version of Ubuntu. Therefore, as always, helped by Juan, here you are the i386 package for Ubuntu Jaunty, or the source code from our brand new public Git repository, if you want to play with it, through the following command:

$ git clone http://git.igalia.com/art/usplash-theme-igalia.git

Abierto el plazo de solicitud de prácticas de verano en Igalia

Posted on Tuesday May 12th, 2009 by tanty

Primero el anuncio oficial:

Igalia, empresa española de Software Libre, ofrece por octavo año consecutivo la posibilidad de realizar prácticas en la empresa durante este verano, en sus instalaciones de A Coruña o Pontevedra, a Ingenieros en Informática o Ingenieros Técnicos en Informática con más del 50% de los créditos superados.

¿Por qué lo hacemos?

La mayoría de nosotros hicimos prácticas en empresa cando eramos estudiantes.
Es una buena forma de devolverle algo a la Universidad de la que venimos.
También es una buena manera de contratar gente. Casi el 50% de las personas que hicieron prácticas con nosotros en el pasado forman parte de la empresa en la actualidad.

¿Cómo son?

Un total de 350 horas con una planificación flexible de 5 a 8 horas diarias durante los meses de julio, agosto y septiembre.
325 horas trabajando en un proyecto de Software Libre y 25 horas para redactar la memoria.
Ayuda de 1200 €.

Si estás interesado en optar a las prácticas, el período de recepción de solicitudes abarca desde el 11 hasta el 22 de mayo.

Por favor, envíanos tu carta de presentación, CV y copia del expediente académico a rrhh[arroba]igalia[punto]com, indicando “[internship] Apellido, Nombre” en el asunto.

Más información: http://www.igalia.com/igalia/workwithus/internship/

Y ahora, algunos comentarios ;).

Como dice en las razones para hacer las prácticas, creemos que es una buena manera de devolverle algo a la universidad de la que venimos. La mayoría de mis compañeros, como es natural, provienen de las universidades gallegas y, como las sedes están en A Coruña y Pontevedra, es normal que la mayoría de las solicitudes vengan de estas universidades, pero nuestras prácticas no están limitadas a las mismas, y tanto es asi que hemos tenido a gente incluso de universidades portuguesas como la de Évora. Es por esto que estaría encantado si este año pudiéramos seleccionar a gente de mi universiad de origen, UniLeón, o de otras universidades cercancas, como UniOvi de donde provienen un montón de amigos de AsturLiNUX, con los que recientemente estuve compartiendo su décimo aniversario.

Por otro lado, he estado revisando los premios que este año se han otorgado en el Concurso Universitario de Software Libre y me han llamado especialmente la atención los proyectos Tucan, LongoMatch y AVBOT. Se ve que, aunque escaso, visto el debate que mantuvimos durante el aniversario de AsturLiNUX, hay cierto movimiento en la Universidad con respecto al Software Libre.

Así que ya sabes, si estás interesado en el desarrollo con Software Libre y te gustaría realizar prácticas de empresa, quizá Igalia es tu empresa para este verano 😀

Igalia is yours

Posted on Wednesday October 22nd, 2008 by tanty

As you may know, Igalia is a singular company. Not only because it works on free software and their members are a bunch of geeks but because it works as a democracy with a flat structure. What actually does this mean? Well, briefing, every worker in Igalia has the right to end owning a part of the company after 4 years, and to take part on the decisions of the company pretty soon, just after 1 year, usually.

As a partner, owning a part of Igalia in the same conditions as the other company partners, but not a founding member, I’ve gone through the whole process, worker, worker with participation in assemblies and right to vote on decisions (we call them “prepartners” in Igalia) and, finally, partner. With this background I can, more or less, to give some advices to those that, like me, started to work in Igalia after its foundation.

What I would say to anyone who starts working in Igalia is that they feel Igalia as being of them as much as any other partner actually and legally is.

This is the most important thing and, actually, if everything goes well for both parts, as it usually goes, they will own Igalia in the end.

The reason is easy, anytime I talk to my friends or family about Igalia’s business model, the same subject rises up. “Yeah, yeah, this is quite romantic, but you are living in real world and for sure there should be someone who is taking advantage of your model to work less and earn as much as the others. That won’t work in the end.” In fact, reality gives us the reason. That is the way of thinking of someone who is used to the general business model with a hierarchy in the company, workers and bosses. What it happens in Igalia is that every Igalo or Igala is interested in the success of the company, at least, as much as any other partner, because they know that the success of the company is their success now and in the future. Indeed this is such in this way that sometimes workers tend to think that they have to work harder since they will feel ashamed if they can’t cope with the same work or expertise than other Igalos. Of course, this is not true since, in my honest opinion, Igalia can be quite proud of having one of the best staffs in the (Free) Software business, but I cannot be objective 😉 .

Even if sometimes I don’t agree with some of the ideas of my partners, I know that they are always thinking in the best for the company and I assume Igalia’s decisions as mine as soon as they are approved. In any case, it’s the common way that all the decisions are taken after debate and agreement better than going through a “cold” polling 🙂 .

So, because all of this, the Igalians have the possibility, and even the must to share their ideas or concerns about the way to enhance our company because every single member of this company acts and thinks in the best way to improve it.

May Igalia be with you 😉 .

Ubuntu usplash theme for Igalia

Posted on Sunday August 3rd, 2008 by tanty

Usplash 300x225

As you may know, every now and then I try to convince myself that I have an idea about drawing or doing cool stuff 😉 . My last attempt, helped by Juan, has been an Usplash theme for Igalia, based on Hardy’s one for Ubuntu. You can download the proper i386 package for Ubuntu, or the source code from our public CVS repository, if you want to play with it, through the following command:

$ cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.igalia.com:/var/publiccvs co art/usplash-theme-igalia

Update: I almost forgot. If you have more than one Usplash theme installed you can select to use Igalia’s one with the following command:

$ update-usplash-theme usplash-theme-igalia

Update2: Thanks to Manuel, we have now an amd64 version for Ubuntu 🙂 .

A Coruña proposed to hold GUADEC and aKademy 2009

Posted on Thursday June 19th, 2008 by tanty

As this will be my first post at planet GNOME, first I would like to thank Jeff for giving me a place between all of you, and I will introduce briefly myself.

My name is Andres Gomez, I’ve been using free software for 8 years, and I’m a free software developer since 2003, when I joined Igalia. As most of my mates, I contributed to project Fisterra, a free software framework for developing enterprise applications, and I’ve been lately involved in some projects related to Maemo technologies.

Now the interesting part of the post 😉

As my mate Chema has published recently in his blog, people from GPUL, Igalia and University of A Coruña have presented a proposal to co-host GUADEC and aKademy next year in A Coruña. The intention was to show all the possibilities that our city and team have in order to organize such a great event to the community.

The proposal’s main idea is:”We want to organize a conference by community people for community people“. Here, in A Coruña, we have the facilities, a passionate team and a lot of ideas after attending several conferences and organizing lots of events (DudesConf 2008, GUAdemy 2007, Guadec-ES 2005, …). We know how important the details are, as well as having second options in case the first one could eventually fail. The main goal is to invest a big effort in achieving that people can come here next year. Because of this, the main expense in our budget will go for helping people to attend the event through sponsoring as many people as possible. That will be feasible thanks to the contribution of the University and volunteers. They will provide, almost for free, all the basics needed to run these two conferences. Also, our regional government, Xunta de Galicia, has an important commitment with this proposal and great confidence in our work at every level. So here it is the final proposal:

GUADEC and aKademy proposal for 2009 in A Coruña

Xunta de Galicia Support to GUADEC and aKademy 2009 in A Coruña

University of A Coruña support to GUADEC and aKademy 2009 in A Coruña

Faculty Support to aKademy and GUADEC 2009 in A Coruña

BTW, if these events are finally going to be hold here, I will volunteer on them so I will be able to give you advices to visit this beautiful Galician city placed in the north-western coast of Spain 🙂 .

Wanted: Dead or Alive

Posted on Friday June 13th, 2008 by tanty

As you should know by the time being, since another Igalians have talked about it recently, Igalia has hold its fourth summit, last weekend in Pontevedra. There has been a lot of new blood since the last summit I attended, almost two years ago, but some others have gone. We wish good luck to them.

In this summit we have fit to the usual schedule, having a lot of time to talk among all the Igalians, get a better knowledge of the mates we work with, and also from those we don’t see so usually, as we are splitted in two locations, one in A Coruña and the other in Pontevedra. Also we spoke about the past, present and exciting future of the company 🙂 .

We have had a lot of fun and everything has gone quite well due to the good work done by the organizer and new brand HR promise, Eva María Loureiro (I’m writing this just to embarrass her 😉 ).

As you probably know, there is not plenty of girls here in Igalia, probably because computing and moreover, Free Software, is not very appealing for them, but the three we have here give sense to the well known Spanish song “Las chicas son guerreras”. If you don’t believe me, just take a look to the fierce look in the Wanted banner on top of this post, taken just before The Arbo War we hold here between the red and green teams. Just herself alone beat a whole green team batallion 🙂 bringing the flag we were competing for to the red campsite.

The Arbo War was not matter of joke. Almost all of us got injured. Indeed, I got my knee severely injured and, while I’m recovering for the next battle, I have had the idea of taking advantage of the amazing photos taken by Mario and, the war journalists, Antia (the third and last great girl in Igalia) and Javier Muñoz, so I’ve been creating some “Wanted banners”, inspired in the old west.

If you are an Igalian and want to be hold in the walls of the towns from here to Pecos river, just tell me and I’ll try to do my best 😉

What do you think?

La espera ha sido larga … pero ha merecido la pena :)

Posted on Wednesday December 5th, 2007 by tanty

De nuevo, sólo han tenido que pasar otros 9 meses y otros 3 viajes a Helsinki para que pueda retomar el tema del que os hablaba en una entrada reciente, pero por fin están aquí, mis premios por haber estado entre los primeros en el concurso de fondos de escritorio de GuadaLinex.

Ahora sólo me falta decidir a donde van a ir a parar estos bonitos peluches. Uno irá a la oficina de A Grela de Igalia, en A Coruña, que es donde trabajo de forma habitual (no, aún no asumo que estoy más tiempo en Finlandia que en España :p ), y donde podrá hacer compañía a otro par de animalitos espachurrables que habitan de forma promocional en las tierras de nuestros escritorios de trabajo. El otro, con gran probabilidad se lo regalaré a mi sobrinita que dentro de poco cumplirá 3 años. La razón, a parte de la edad y el vínculo familiar, es que, de lejos, es la mujer que mejor me ha tratado en los últimos tiempos (a pesar de que a veces se niegue a darme algún beso 😀 ).

Y ahora, con un poco de ánimo y fuerza de voluntad frente a la página en blanco, tengo el firme propósito de actualizar mi blog con unas cuantas entradas sobre mis últimas experiencias, en pisos que parecen sacados de una película de tarzán, y otros temas de similar rareza, pero mejor no adelantar nada 🙂 …

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